In a recent survey conducted by the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform – Binance ranks Nigeria number 1 country with the highest crypto adoption in the world. This survey witnessed the evaluation of dozens of countries according to crypto usage. Binance which was founded in 2017 and domiciled in the Cayman Islands is a cryptocurrency exchange platform that provides trading various cryptocurrencies. Binance is currently the largest exchange in the world in terms of the daily trading volume. The survey showed that around 300 million people globally in 2021 have owned or used crypto at some point in their lives and also one-in-three Nigerians have used or owned crypto at some point.
According to recent data published by Binance, Nigeria ranks 1st globally as the leading country per capita for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency adoption. The survey finds out that due to the pre-existing prevalence of mobile phone-based P2P payments this has led to a huge amount of Nigerians especially the younger, more tech-savvy ones to largely explore cryptocurrency. With around 300 million users as of 2021, crypto is more ubiquitous than ever. There is still plenty of room for crypto to grow and spread worldwide. Despite these growing numbers, 300 million crypto users is only 4% of the world’s population.
The report was released recently on Binance’s blog explaining that the ranking was based on Statista’s survey on selected countries that said they used or owned cryptocurrencies in 2020. The report further indicated that 2021 will be looked at as the inflection point towards the global adoption of cryptocurrencies. The report extensively discussed 3 reasons as to why 2021 is a monumental year for cryptocurrency adoption. These reasons include All-Time-Highs (ATHs) for Bitcoin and altcoins, institutional adoption, and general adoption. The report stated, “Adding to the momentum that Bitcoin created, more people were attracted to crypto because of the new innovations that were introduced, such as blockchain-fueled solutions like Defi (decentralized finance), NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and more, opening new avenues within the crypto industry.”
On the reason for institutional adoption, the report stated that the presence of institutional investors was the key difference between this year’s rises in crypto interest as compared to 2017’s “short-lived” cryptocurrency boom. It mentioned multinational companies like Tesla, Square, and MicroStrategy who started to declare their Bitcoin reserves. The report states that about 300 million people represent just 3.8% of the world’s population or 5.8% of the total people on earth between the ages of 15 to 65 (5.1 billion). It used these statistics to further explain its point on why crypto adoption is at its early stages. The report also drives home the point that using the technology adoption curve which states that at the first stage, which is the stage cryptocurrencies are in, between 2.5% – 13.5% of people try the new technology and these people are considered the innovators and pioneers. The report concluded that crypto will become one of the widest-used technologies in the world as it plans to hit 50% usage around the world (2.55 billion people between 15 and 65 years old). “For context, Google has nearly 4 billion users, while Facebook has almost 3 billion users”, the report stated.
About Nigeria, the report stated, “Topping the list is the African nation of almost 200 million people. With most Nigerians adept at sending money and paying through their phones, almost a third of Nigerians surveyed by Statista have used or owned crypto at some point.” It puts the countries crypto adoption at 32% according to Statista. Notably, Vietnam ranked second at 21% by adoption as the nation of nearly 100 million has also seen huge demand in crypto, with activities varying from trading and P2P to payments and other utilities. The Philippines with 20%, and Turkey with 20%, were the third and fourth-ranked nations for adoption, while Peru ranked fifth with 16%, despite being the most advanced nation in Latin America for crypto adoption.
Olagoke Ajibola is a creative writer and content producer with an eye for details and excellence. He has a demonstrated history of telling stories for TV, Film and Online. Aside from being fascinated by the power of imagination, his other interest are travel, sport, reading and meeting people.
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